1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a system and method for providing a condensation management system and method for a commercial cooking device. The system and methods include one or both of reconfigured a vent pipe and repositioning of a spray nozzle.
2. Discussion of the Background Art
A commercial cooking device comprises a cooking chamber enclosed by a door that can be opened and closed for providing access to the cooking chamber. Such cooking devices, such as combi-ovens, produce steam during the cooking process, either by: (1) the release of steam from the food product being cooked resulting from the inherent internal moisture of the food product, or (2) by the introduction of water sprayed into the cooking chamber or produced by a steam generator within the cooking appliance for cooking the food product in a higher humidity environment.
When a large amount of steam is released under the above conditions, excess steam must be allowed to escape and a way of doing this must be provided. Otherwise, pressure could build up within the cooking chamber. In order to manage humidity buildup in the oven, conventional cooking apparatuses have an exhaust air opening from which the steam can escape from the cooking chamber into the kitchen atmosphere. In the case of high performance cooking devices and those having long hours of service in a twenty four hour period, this can lead to a large accumulation of moisture and heat in the kitchen atmosphere surrounding the cooking device and often in the entire premises where the cooking device is located as well. Hence, adequate ventilation and exhaust measures are required where such cooking devices having a relatively high food capacity are installed. The rate of air exchange necessarily associated with these ventilation and exhaust measures results in a high energy requirement for the ventilation and exhaust, as well as additionally for the cooling of the premises air.
In light of the above, the cooking chamber may need to have steam removed as condensation as part of the cooking process or for safety reasons before the door is opened. When this condensation of steam from the cooking device needs to occur, the steam is generally forced out of the cooking chamber, circulated over a water surface located in one or more condenser boxes outside of the oven to condense some of the steam, and excess non-condensed steam is vented from the cooking device through a vent pipe directly into the kitchen atmosphere. Although some steam is condensed by these commercial cooking devices and methods, very large quantities of steam are produced are still released into the kitchen and require further ventilation from the kitchen.
There have been attempts to improve the treatment of steam produced in commercial cooking devices and to increase the amount of steam which is condensed so that more steam can be removed from the cooking device as condensate. This also has the goal of reducing the amount of steam released into the kitchen and thereafter requiring venting from the kitchen.
In one such state of the art method and system for removing steam from a cooking device, the steam is forced into a condenser box and flows across the surface of a water reservoir in the condenser box. However, there is insufficient surface area to effect good heat transfer between the water reservoir in the condenser box and the steam passing over its surface. As a result, a significant amount of steam escapes through the vent pipe of the cooking device and into the kitchen atmosphere.
In other embodiments of the above state of the art method and system for removing steam from a cooking device, a nozzle is placed in the condenser box above the surface of the water reservoir, or a nozzle is placed directly into the vent pipe of the cooking device. In either situation, water is sprayed forcefully in a direction countercurrent to the path or flow of the steam traveling through the vent pipe. Even with these state of the art systems and methods, a significant amount of steam escapes through the vent pipe of the cooking device and into the kitchen atmosphere.
Another state of the art method and system for removing steam from a cooking device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Pub. 2011/0072983 (equivalent to DE 10 2008 01296). Therein, a more or less serpentine vapour channel is used to increase the path length of the flow of steam as it is in the vapour condenser. In addition to this increase in path length, this state of the art method and system sprays water into contact with the vapour channel. Although this system and method represents an improvement as compared to those systems and methods discussed above, a significant amount of steam is still expelled to the outside of the cooking device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,995,341 discloses another example of a state of the art method and system for removing steam from a cooking device. In this method and system, water is sprayed from a spray nozzle inside the cooking chamber in a direction generally the same as the path or flow of the steam. However, in this method and device, the spray nozzle is located in the cooking chamber (separated by partition). The condensed steam passes through a condensation trough adjacent the bottom of the cooking chamber of the cooking device, such that the sprayed water and condensed steam pass into the condensation trough and then down an outflow drain and into the condenser box. Condensed steam flows out of the cooking device via a drain pipe into the condenser box. This system and method do not face the problem of excess steam possibly passing through the vent pipe and into the surrounding atmosphere.
Thus, there remains a need for a method and system which improves the degree of condensation of steam produced in a commercial cooking device, thereby resulting in less steam being expelled through the vent pipe of the cooking device and into the atmosphere outside of the cooking device, such as into the kitchen atmosphere. Such a method and system will reduce or avoid altogether the need for additional venting of the steam from the kitchen atmosphere to an external atmosphere outside of the kitchen.